journaling

The Montblanc 100 Day Writing Challenge — Epilogue

/ Pete Denison / Leave a comment

All done. With the Montblanc 100 Day Writing Challenge tools laid down on September 8, we stepped away from our worksheets and prompts to take a look back through 100 entries.

I must say I found this an enjoyable undertaking, having set out (and succeeded) with a plan to limit each day to one A5 page — that is, as manageable as it would ever be. The “challenge”, however, did come in days 80 and beyond, where my not-so-dab hand at calligraphy was brutally exposed. Of course, that was to no-one but myself, and perhaps you dear reader, should I decide to add a few images to this post.

The Tools

Notebook

The canvas hosting my challenge was a “25th Anniversary” edition of Montblanc’s A5 sized #146 Notebook. The anniversary moniker is of course entirely my own making, having bought a pair of these notebooks for myself and my wife on our 25th wedding anniversary a couple of years ago. Monogramming undertaken at the best pen shop in the world completed the picture. Given the challenge honoured Montblanc’s 100th anniversary, it seemed an appropriate occasion to break open and use the notebook.

Tools down and book closed…

More on the pens below, however in terms of paper quality, I find the Montblanc notebooks handle almost anything, except for the wettest of inks and broader nibs. Now, a caveat here: ”wettest” and ”broadest” being extremely relative terms. If you’re reading along here, please understand these are based on the inks and nibs in my collection. One of my broadest and fastest running nibs? The OMAS Ogiva Alba — it’s a “medium” (albeit a European medium). One of my wettest inks? Van Dieman’s Oakwood Brown. Put those two in combination and there is distinct feathering on the page and show through on the reverse. This does not happen for example, with the same ink in my Pilot Custom 823 — a Japanese medium nib.

I would say it’s probably a case of creating a notebook suited to “our” pens and inks if you asked Montblanc, for I’ve typically found my Montblanc inks to be drier than some others. Of course, not being a BB nib type of pen owner, take this commentary how you will.

I do love the Montblanc notebooks, in so far as they really are the complete picture in themselves. The leather cover in a variety of styles (the subject notebook here carries a Saffiano leather cover), the gilded silver paper edging, and just the overall weight suggestive of a quality item. And yes, all of which you will indeed pay for. Probably not one for your daily driver — you most likely don’t want to be buying one every month or so.

Pens

With most typical days involving gel pens (a Traveler’s Notebook bullet journal system) and ballpoints (standard work notes in the office), I like to balance that out with some fountain pens. This mostly involves some other form of journaling, writing or planning in what I’d call a “desk book”. The 100-day challenge was of course a great fit.

As I look back through the challenge (where 80% of the time I captured what I used on the day in a footnote), it was a rotation of the following pens (and inks):

  • Montblanc 147 Traveller; Medium (Montblanc Royal Blue cartridge)
  • Pilot Custom Heritage 92; Fine-Medium (Edelstein Tanzanite)
  • Pelikan M805; Fine (Montblanc Irish Green)
  • Montblanc M; Medium (Montblanc Burgundy Red cartridge)
  • Lamy Aion; Medium (Van Dieman’s Oakwood Brown)
  • Kaweco Ice Sport; Medium (Kaweco Black cartridge)
  • Parker 75; Medium (Parker Quink cartridge)
  • Pilot Custom Heritage 92; Fine-Medium (Iroshizuku Shin Kai)
  • Platinum President; Medium (Iroshizuku Momiji)
  • Montblanc 146; Medium (Bookbinders Red Belly Black)
  • Montblanc 144; Medium (Montblanc Burgundy Red cartridge)
  • Pilot Custom Heritage 91; Fine-Medium (Van Dieman’s West Coast Sunset)
  • Pilot Custom 742; Sutab (Iroshizuku Shin Ryoku cartridge)
  • Lamy 2000; Fine (Robert Oster Peach)

A few other non-fountain variants made their way into the mix as well. Two colour variants of the uni-ball Signo 0.7 mm, a Pentel Kerry mechanical pencil, and a couple of Pentel Energels in 0.5 mm and 0.7 mm.

If I had a favourite combination during the challenge, I’d say it was the Pilot Custom 742. I love that Sutab nib, and I hadn’t tried the Iroshizuku Shin Roku before, so I’m thinking that had a fair bit to do with it. In general, I’d say they are all delightful to use, and worked pretty well on the Montblanc paper.

Accessories

This heading — though plural — really only offers one type used a few times through the challenge: stickers. It’s one of those cases where talented sketch-noting would go a long way, however in the absence of that, sticker (stick noting?) additions are it. Here it was a combination Traveler’s Company stickers, a few from a Melbourne creator I picked up at the Rose St Market on a trip to Melbourne last year, and a sticker sheet received with an issue of Standart (a coffee publication).

Much more appealing decoration than my efforts below…

I find the stickers a great way to break up the blocks of text, and are certainly more visually pleasing than my shaky calligraphy efforts.

Speaking of which…

Challenge challenges

I have long held ambitions of becoming better at the more creative side of my writing, and by that I mean the visual side of said writing. Calligraphy is the most obvious choice here; however, I’ve never really had the motivation to start. What better way than rolling through days’ 84 to 93 of the challenge and working on a page a day of modern calligraphy?

Well, shaky at best, simply weird at worst. I’m happy I gave it a shot, although I’m not even sure modern calligraphy is a style I particularly enjoy. To that end, I’m not even sure that some older styles like Copperplate or Spencerian appeal to me either. To say I just need to find something that appeals to me would perhaps be a little flippant. I feel in the back of my mind, the truth probably lies more closely to the fact that I’ll never really get around to putting in enough time to get more proficient — regardless of the style.

Pushing on…
Questionable…
Could it be working?
Calligraphy with comments

As far as writing each day is concerned, that wasn’t difficult at all, and I’m sure anyone reading this is most likely a daily writer as well. Having the prompts? Well, that does make things easier, and is perhaps a lesson learned from me, as someone who never uses them and occasionally resorts to re-writing song lyrics to get something down each day.

Wrapping Up

In summary, the Montblanc 100 Day Writing Challenge was both enjoyable and a success. It does make me wonder why I don’t use more prompts in my journaling, and also why I choose some “challenges” and let others pass by. Whether that changes in the future is another matter, and I’m glad I chose this one — shaky calligraphy and all.

The Montblanc 100 Day Writing Challenge

/ Pete Denison / 1 Comment

Thinking back, perhaps I should have written about the Montblanc 100 Day Writing Challenge a little earlier, however having started myself a few days late, this post was always going to be a mid-challenge update.

With day 37 just completed, it is of course a fine time to tell us now… Well dear reader, you are indeed correct; however, this blog certainly isn’t known for its cutting edge hot takes on the stationery and writing communities, releases, or events.

Carrying on that tradition, things are going pretty well at a little over a third of the way through, and it’s been an enjoyable diversion in addition to my usual pen on paper ramblings.

The Challenge

I could say “never one to miss a marketing opportunity” about Montblanc, and while that statement is true enough — why would they? There is nothing inherently wrong with a business promoting itself or its products, and the emphasis on ”any tools will do” in the webinar sessions is certainly welcome (though of course you’ll see an array of Montblancs’ used on screen).

The writing challenge ties in of course with the 100th anniversary celebration of the Meisterstuck pen, which also brought a few new pens, other associated products, a Wes Anderson short film, and quite a few other events if social media is anything to go by.

Image courtesy Montblanc

A quick aside: the 100th anniversary pens? Well, nice enough yes, however never has my excitement peaked more than when I thought a re-release of the original versions may have been coming upon seeing some promo photos earlier in the year (for me, it’s the original green version from halfway down this page). To say my disappointment peaked even higher upon realising the anniversary release was simply a modern take paying homage to the originals, would indeed be accurate. Don’t get me wrong, the pens are indeed impressive, though not a patch on the aesthetic of the originals. Time marches on, I suppose.

Finally, the Wes Anderson designed Schreiberling pen does look intriguing, however at an estimated price tag of $2,500, is certainly not for me either.

Anyway, back to matters at hand. You’ll find details of the Writing Challenge through Montblanc’s Inspire Writing series, under Creative Writing Courses on the Montblanc website via the Discover menu (or more easily from the link above).

Having dabbled in some of these webinars in the past, and looked at others (with calligraphy I have intent, yet to date, no action), the 100 Day Challenge seemed both achievable and worthwhile at the same time. Catching up on the kick-off webinar in the “past sessions”, under presenter Brittany DeSantis, I came in a few days late, however quickly caught up given the writing prompts lead to as much or as little time investment as you like.

The Idea

On the surface, exactly as it says on the tin: to write daily for 100 consecutive days. Now for those of us who are well into the thousands of consecutive days writing (journaling, blogging, note-taking or the like), I generally consider the occasional challenge like this one as simply: 100 days of different writing.

The challenge is divided into a couple of parts, the first being Your handwriting and history, comprising 43 days worth of daily prompts, mostly on writing and stationery habits, though also some general life themed questions as well. Part 2 will apparently be delving into lists to “discover more about ourselves and plan ahead” which I believe will begin at the next webinar taking place on July 10.

A daily commitment of about 5–10 minutes is the pitch, and I don’t find it overly burdensome, having limited myself to one page of an A5 Journal for each prompt. Accessible and achievable — always the best way to ensure those who start do a fair job of engaging, continuing, and finishing.

The Prompts

I’ve never been one to use journaling prompts, though at times when I sit in front of a blank page I think perhaps I should. Adding an extra A5 page a day as part of the challenge certainly provides no great impost, and given the fairly straightforward prompts, I’ve not found myself staring at a blank page.

Perhaps the secret is to take the prompts literally if that suits, or simply as a guide if there is a tangent you’d like to work through on a particular day. It really is a choose-your-own adventure. I’m sure if you are a prompt user, then you’ve likely seen them all, however a couple I enjoyed:

  • Your earliest memory of handwriting
  • How your handwriting changes based on what or where you’re writing
  • How your tastes in pen and ink have changed

There are also quite a few around “your favourite…”, along with more inspirational and life-themed questions, however the general Part 1 arc of Your Handwriting & history seems captured well enough through the prompts.

Signing off

Acknowledging I’m a bit late to the party in passing on the message out there about this challenge, there are still two remaining webinars and another two thirds of the writing days still to go. Perhaps it’s something to pick up now or even retrospectively complete at your leisure. I’ve certainly found it an enjoyable and worthwhile endeavour.

A planner and a plan

/ Pete Denison / 3 Comments
Image courtesy Bunbougu

Sure, everyone has long moved on from planner season and even the “my year in review” posts are done and dusted, though I guess you cannot say this blog has ever really been at the cutting edge of anything. So here I am talking of my initial foray into planners. Better late than never, I guess. Surely having been into stationery all your life and written this blog for over ten years now, this can’t be an initiation into the world of planners. Can it? Well, ostensibly friends, the answer is yes.

Yes, there were the yearly, very cheap appointment diaries of many years ago, and the Filofax years (loved my brown leather Timberland cover) in between, however since becoming really invested in all things pen and stationery over the past decade, I had largely been a notebook only kind of person. At least until now. Honestly, this makes me both excited and a little nervous all at the same time.

Why now?

Well, it’s not been a great year to be honest, and during the tougher times the tendency for me is to turn inwards and embrace what brings a little joy. Something to turn your mind to when it needs an outlet. I don’t think anyone will be surprised when I say the very topic themes on this blog (pens, coffee, stationery and the like) are generally the things that help me do that.

Viewing a few planner videos on YouTube (and wow, dangerous as that is…), I began to see a slightly different angle on things. Maybe trying to develop my creative side a little? What began attempting a few basic drawings and sketches, morphed into accumulating a few stickers and templates. I also shifted gears a little from my fountain pens back towards a case full of gel pens. Needless to say, both my favourite Brisbane pen store, Pen and Ink, and online Japanese stationery site Bunbougu facilitated this transition nicely.

How it’s going

I’d have to say I’m fairly pleased so far. Sure, I’ve ultimately realised I’m not great with the drawing, nor am I overly creative, but let’s just call it a work-in-progress. An evolution if you will. Some days I give it a run, others are just words-only as they always were, and that’s more than okay.

If you can’t sketch… then stamp. The Everyday Explorers Currently Inked stamp set

The usual crew

Planner season or not, it’s always notebook season… in some form or another. So, at the current time, things are looking like this:

  1. Daily Journal: Black Leuchtturm1917 A5 Hardcover in dot grid (a left over from a second failed Bullet Journal experiment earlier in the year)
  2. Everyday Notebook: new addition outlined below
  3. Novel Writing Notebook: Montblanc #149 lined notebook (sounds grand, though when your last story was 2014’s NaNoWriMo and this is a follow-up — it has been a long time…)
  4. Pure Capture: a mix of 2. above and a Field Notes Pitch Black
  5. Travel Diary: again, that’s integrated with 2. above as well…
  6. 2024 Diary/Planner: the second new addition, further details below

New additions

Traveler’s Notebook – Olive Regular Size

I guess this is where things get a little more interesting — at least in terms of the purpose of this post. In the context of some of that list (numbers 2,4 and 5) above, it perhaps comes as no surprise I have delved into the world of the Traveler’s Notebook system. Having purchased an Olive Regular size Traveler’s Notebook cover in August before a 10-day trip away, it has now also become my everyday notebook of sorts as well. I’m still tinkering with various inserts and thinking about how I might “section off” various aspects of my writing life (travel, commonplace, general note-taking, writing etc) so I’ll say the TN lifestyle is also still a work in progress.

Notebooks and coffee – that theme thread is strong… the pen is a Caran d’Ache + Nespresso 849 ballpoint pen

Things seem to be working well at the moment though, and I have embraced various pockets, clips, and other accessories in my quest for something a little different to my typical standard notebooks of the past. Inserts are your standard dot grid, blank, and grid, though I’ll be adding a lined version soon. The slimmer, taller nature of the regular inserts seems to suit me fairly well, and a 0.5mm gel pen has turned out to be the tool of choice (currently a couple of Uniball Signo DX, however there are quite a few 0.7mm Pentel Energels’ that emerged from the second drawer when this all began).

Behold the results of sending your sister and niece all over Tokyo searching for additions…

The Olive leather on the Traveler’s cover is certainly something to behold, and is already showing a little lived-in wear which looks fantastic, and will no doubt become even better with age. I do have a matching Traveler’s Company pen loop attached, which is 50:50 both useful and annoying, though I think it will stay given its utility. I of course also could not go past Mal’s perfect monogramming for that personal touch — love it.

First comes the creativity…

You can say I’m very much enjoying the change so far.

Hobonichi Weeks 2024 Hardcover Planner

This one I’m a little less sure about. Not because I have any doubts about the planner itself, just what I’ll use it for. I have a few ideas, and they are mainly around the wellness/habit tracking type of area, and I’ve been noting down some ideas over the past month or so.

Then comes the structure…

I seem to have mostly settled on a combination of personal development/self-improvement/wellness journal/health/habit tracker. I lump them all together because I’d like it to be more than a simple tracker, yet terms like “wellness” though valid, give me Instagram snake oil/supplement seller — vibes. Whilst I realise that sweeping generalisation is unfair; I simply cannot comfortably call this anything ”wellness”, and it will be more than simply a healthy habits’ tracker.

So, in the interests of something meaningful and relevant to the task at hand, the working title which has meandered its way into my consciousness: my TG37 Journal. This is simply based upon the writing of James Clear on “tiny gains”, and the “1% better every day providing a 37-fold improvement at year end” theory. We’ll see how things go.

The tracking options are many

For my first foray into Hobonichi land, I went with a cover design by Japanese illustrator Hiroko Kubota, called Another night of falling star sparklers. I was looking for something a little unique and upon seeing a shared birth year with the cover designer, it seemed a pretty good fit.

Something a little unique for the cover design

I think the challenge here will be not overthinking things, though it has indeed been a while since I’ve entertained the structure of a dated planner in my analogue tools. Overall, I’d say I am fairly optimistic though.

Wrapping Up

It can be a little funny putting together a post like this, in that when summarised on a page, what feels like a significant change in reality, perhaps doesn’t sound as grandiose when outlined on a blog. Then again, it isn’t meant to be either. Our interests, plans, and realities take many forms, and how we document this is unique to each of us. Thankfully, we have as many options for tools as there are approaches to doing it.

I hope the finish to your 2023 is a good one, and 2024 is looking promising as well — however you intend to plan, log, track, or document your own journey.